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Good practice case study: South West Peer-to-Peer Education

In 2014, Addaction and The Hepatitis C Trust, supported by AbbVie, formed a partnership through which the two organisations worked together to support people with a history of injecting drug use into the hepatitis C care pathway. The partnership project adopted three key interventions; peer-to-peer education, a buddying scheme, and a workforce development programme. An external evaluation was conducted on all three elements of the project (with the report available here). This case study summarises the findings of the peer-to-peer education intervention.

Related resources

Public Health England published its annual 'Hepatitis C in England' report on 30th May 2020. This reporting document monitors the England's progress towards its goal of eliminating the virus by 2030 and contains breakdowns of how testing and treatment are being delivered by service type, demographic and local area. This year's report notes significant increases in treatment availability over the last few years. It also suggests there have been increases in access to treatment for the people who inject drugs.

This 2020 update on drug-related infectious diseases from the EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction) aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current situation with regard to the epidemiological picture of drug-related infectious diseases in Europe up to January 2020. It highlights some recent innovative responses to the problem and argues that early diagnosis through testing as well as improving links to treatment and care are crucial steps towards reaching global health goals.

This Scottish Drugs Forum-produced guidance is aimed at those planning and designing services as well as those managing and delivering services for people who use drugs, in particular those people on opioid substitution therapy (OST) and people who inject drugs. The guidance includes a section on blood borne virus (BBV) testing, noting that "all delayed BBV results from dry blood spot tests must be proactively followed up in a timely manner once COVID-19 related restrictions allow".

This report from Public Health England breaks down the number of laboratory reports of hepatitis C tests carried out in England and Wales between October and December 2019 by age and gender. A breakdown is also provided by ODN in England.